A small bottle (usually a container and preferably a cylindrical container) is used for the containment and delivery of medicine; such as prescriptions, vitamins, medications, pills, capsules, liquids and similar items. The consumer then uses the bottle as storage place for the medicine enclosed therein, while consuming the contents thereof in the required fashion. It is customary for a bottle or other container holding such an item to have a description of its contents on the exterior thereof. That description is usually taped, glued or otherwise secured to the outer surface.
The bottles are typically used to house and secure medications, vitamins, and sometimes volatile chemicals for nearly all industries. Such a bottle or container is especially useful for medicines. The outer surface of the bottle is limited by its size as to the amount of information that can be provided thereon, about the medicine contained therein.
A general structure of the bottle can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,208 to Fred H. Lowe. Many other bottles are also known. These patents are incorporated herein by reference.
The bottle is typically a single walled hollow cylinder. A solid bottom closes one end of the bottle, thereby usually forming a closed end hollow cylinder; although other shapes are possible. The solid bottom is usually perpendicular to the cylinder and spans the entire area across the bottom of the cylinder, and thus enclosing one end of the cylinder.
The top of the bottle is removably closable. However, it can typically be closed with a removable cap 6r cover, which when attached encloses the cylinder at the end opposite to the solid bottom of the cylinder. It is customary for the cap or cover to attach to the cylinder in a secure manner such that the intended user can remove and re-attach it as required.
The bottle is used to house, contain, or deliver specific contents to its intended user in as secure a manner as possible. Basic information is printed on the outer surface of the bottle. Such verbiage relates to the contents and recommended usage instructions for the intended user of the contents.
The quantity of information and instructions available with current bottles and containers is limited by the size of the bottle's exterior surface, and therefore may be unable to provide as much adequate information as is needed by the user. This is especially true in the case of drugs, whether in liquid or pill or capsule form.
What is desired is a bottle, which can provide additional information can be provided while still maintaining, for the intended user, delivery and containment elements of the bottle, for which it was originally intended. Clearly additional information relating to the complexities of the drug, includes, but is not limited to, interaction with other drugs and side effects of the current drug.
This additional information almost inherently contains too many words to fit on the bottle label. As a result, now the customary practice is to staple the list or instructions to a bag containing the drug bottle. The consumer, at home, tends to dispose of everything but the pill bottle, thereby losing the advantage of these important instructions. Some simplified device for holding this information at or near the drug bottle is clearly required. There is no known simplified system for keeping these instructions at hand.